MAERSK Line has opened up new markets worldwide for Philippine banana exporters with the introduction of StarCare, an exclusive reefer container technology.
The technology allows Philippine banana exporters to transport their produce to Europe longer than 30 days. The service is available in shipment sizes down to 20 pallets.
Maersk Line in April carried out a trial shipment of fresh bananas to Rotterdam in the Netherlands from Davao using the technology.
Successful trials with bananas out of Ecuador have also been conducted.
“The quality of the bananas didn’t suffer from the long transit time, the color was green as it should be, and the bananas were nice and firm with no chilling injuries – absolutely no deterioration of the fruit,” Maersk said in a statement.
According to Maersk, imported bananas are nothing out of the ordinary in Europe, but arriving by sea from a destination as far as the Philippines is a breakthrough. The bananas spent a total of 34 days in the containers and arrived in Rotterdam as fresh as when they were loaded at the point of origin.
